Scalia sided with the majority in that case, which found the First Amendment protects political expression like setting the stars and stripes on fire. That doesn't mean the 78-year-old justice likes flag desecration, but it's the justices' job to interpret the Constitution, not to pass moral judgment, Scalia has said repeatedly.

"I hate the result [in Texas v. Johnson]," Scalia said at a Q&A sponsored by Brooklyn Law.

"I would send that guy to jail so fast if I were king," he added, then referring to Gregory Lee Johnson as a "bearded weirdo."

Johnson was with several dozen other protesters when he poured kerosene on an American flag and lit it on fire during the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, The New York Times reported in 1989. The protestors then chanted, "America the red, white, and blue, we spit on you." Johnson was convicted of violating Texas' flag desecration law, fined $2,000, and sentenced to a year in prison.

In overturning Johnson's conviction, Scalia signed onto an opinion written by one of the court's most iconic liberals, William J. Brennan. Scalia's vote may have surprised some people, but it was not the last time the conservative justice would shock people in the interest of upholding Constitutional principles.